Bankruptcy Filings Dropped in April
Recently released numbers on personal bankruptcy filings show that April’s numbers were down from both March 2011 and April 2010, more or less following the trends that experts have predicted for the remainder of this year. Here’s a closer look at the specifics, and what this means for you.
- The 21 business days in April saw 130,000 total bankruptcy filings, which comes to 6,177 filings per business day.
- The number of filings shows a decline of 2.9 percent from March, and 7.1 percent from April 2010.
- So far this year, filings have decreased each month at a rate somewhere between 5.6 percent and 8.2 percent compared to 2010 numbers.
- In the past 12 months, 4.9 in 1,000 people have filed bankruptcy petitions. The number in 2004 (before the new bankruptcy law was passed) was 5.5 per thousand.
According to these statistics, April 2011 bankruptcy numbers suggest a decline in bankruptcy filings both compared to recent months and to last year. Bankruptcy filing rates, though not as popularly cited as unemployment numbers, can be used to offer at least a partial picture of economic recovery.
Based on the numbers for April and 2011 so far, predictions for total bankruptcy filings this year include the following:
- 1.475 million bankruptcy filings if Americans continue filing at the daily average rate (5,876) for the first four months of 2011 combined;
- 1.525 million bankruptcy filings if we continue at April’s daily average rate (6,177); or
- 1.499 million bankruptcy filings if the last eight months of the year make up the same proportion of filings as they did in the last two years.
How does that compare with the recent past? In 2010, the country had 1.56 million total filings; in 2009, the total was 1.474 million; and in 2008, 1.118 million. If filings stay on track, then, it looks like 2010 might have been the peak year for bankruptcy filings and 2011 will be the beginning of a decline.
There is no guarantee, however, that bankruptcies will steadily decrease. After all, the housing market is still glutted with foreclosure properties and home prices don’t seem to be rising. As a new wave of foreclosures begins to affect homeowners, combined with sluggish growth in the jobs sector, the need for bankruptcy protection could climb or remain constant for a few years to come.
If nothing else, these latest bankruptcy numbers suggest (once again) that the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act passed in 2005 had little real effect on bankruptcy filing totals.
Those truly in need of the financial relief and protection bankruptcy offers are still largely able to get that help from the bankruptcy court, despite the tightened restrictions the law introduced.
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